Evangelist, whose record true

The Saviour's life hath given to view,
Whose praise is in the Gospel heard,
That praise be with thy brethren shar'd:
But that by pen inspir'd are told
The fortunes of the infant fold,
Such praise is due to thee alone,
And, LUKE, this honour is thine own.

ST. SIMON AND ST. JUDE.

Simon called Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. LUKE vi. 15, 16.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ST. SIMON
ZELOTES.

THE festival of this day affords a second instance of a double commemoration; namely, of the two Saints, "Simon called Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James," as they are named by St. Luke both in his Gospel and in the Acts; or, as they are named by St. Matthew, "Lebbæus whose surname was Thaddæus, and Simon the Canaanite." Their association by the Church in the same festival may possibly have been founded on a tradition, that they travelled and preached the Gospel together in Persia, and were together crowned with martyrdom". The

a Dr. Cave.

tradition itself appears to have no good authority, though it may have been the occasion for their being celebrated together in the Romish breviary; and the association having been once formed, there was no urgent cause for departing from it in the protestant Church; the rather, as of one of the two, namely Simon, the history recorded in the Gospels, as well as in ecclesiastical writers, is extremely scanty. Since he is mentioned first in the Calendar, as well as by St. Luke, we will first proceed with our notice of him.

By

The parentage of Simon is uncertain. some writers he is supposed with considerable confidence to be one of the four persons reckoned by St. Matthew and St. Mark among our Lord's brethren. Dean Stanhope says, there is little reason to doubt it; but assigns no reason for the opinion. By others this supposition is with equal confidence denied. Dr. Cave observes, that "no other evidence appears for it, but that there was a Simon, one of the number: too infirm a foundation," he adds, "to build any thing more upon than a mere conjecture." It may be added on the negative side, that whereas Judas is distinctly called "the brother of James," who is designated by St. Paul as "the Lord's brother," and is thus identified with Judas named among the Lord's

brethren by St. Matthew and St. Mark; whilst Simon the Apostle is not any where styled the brother of James, but is named with another distinctive appellation, as "Simon the Canaanite" or "Simon Zelotes;" it may be judged more reasonable to adopt the opinion of those, who think that he was not one of our Lord's brethren.

In the catalogue of the Apostles he is called sometimes "Simon the Canaanite," and sometimes "Simon Zelotes:" for the purpose, as it should seem, of distinguishing him from Simon Peter. From the resemblance of sound in the former of these appellations, he has been by some persons regarded as a native of Cana in Galilee: by others, as the bridegroom, at whose marriage feast our Lord performed his first miracle. But the name has no reference either to his country, or to his place of nativity or of residence it has in fact the same signification with the other name "Zelotes;" being derived from a Hebrew word, as the other is from a Greek word, both signifying zeal; and the name is correctly rendered in English as "the Zealot."

The cause of the name being given him is not ascertained: whether to denote the personal warmth and vigour of his character; or to intimate that he was a member of the Jewish sect of the Zealots; a sect distinguished for the